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Opinionated Rugby Commentary - by Fans for Fans
Spill what you really think about events in the rugby world.
Super 15 Rugby Round 7 Review - 10 Things 6 views
29 March 2015 by The Swede Eaters
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Here are 10 things we got out of Super Rugby Round 7.
Super Rugby Round 7 gave us some interesting results, let's look at 10 Things We Learnt this round, do you agree?
1) The Super Rugby margins seem to be stabilising with the average margin per round and average margin in Round 7 both around 12 points.
2) It was difficult to improve positions in tipping competitions this round with four hot favourites winning their matches. The Highlanders, Lions and Bulls winning were picked by about half of SuperBru tipsters. Picking five out of seven winners with a few margin points thrown in, sometimes isn't even enough to maintain your position, let alone climb the conference ladder!
3) The margins were interesting with the Highlanders and Hurricanes having the biggest margins, while the Chiefs and Sharks who were expected to win by more, won by smaller margins than most people anticipated.
4) All three teams that had the bye in Super Rugby Round 6, lost. For the Blues, it was hardly surprising, but the Stormers and Reds had winnable games which they didn't win. Watch out Brumbies, you are next!
5) Six out of seven games were won by the home team. This was the norm in 2014 when home teams won 71 percent of games, but this year around 50 percent of home teams have won games.
6) What do you think of the standard of refereeing in Super Rugby? I saw some strange decisions in the games I watched. The Cheetahs first try against the Chiefs came after the Chiefs didn't contest a Cheetahs maul from a lineout and Boom Prinsloo at the front fed the ball back to his team mates in the maul who then gave it back to him and he ran uncontested for a try. Referee Craig Joubert who I rate highly didn't pick that one up as it was offside or a forward pass at least.
While the Crusaders were disappointing against the Bulls, there were also some other strange decisions. The pass from Nadolo to Slade was probably just forward. Nadolo had Kieran Read outside him too, but there were two calls during that game which confused not only me, but some of the players. The Bulls halfback had a habit of picking up the ball and looking around to see where to pass it. He did this once for about three or four seconds, Richie McCaw came around and tackled him and was penalised. Surely, if he had his hands on the ball then he was fair game.
The Bulls lost the ball at a breakdown, the Crusaders won the ball and tried to run it. They passed the ball three times with wide passes and Israel Dagg lost the ball forward about 10 - 15 metres behind where the Bulls lost the ball forward. Surely there was no advantage there!
I also think Angus Gardner was reading the media reports about how people like John Mitchell had a problem with Wyatt Crockett from the Crusaders and it seemed that Gardner was being pressured by the Bulls players. There has been media reports about Crockett especially pushing and rotating before the ball is put into a scrum. Gardner kept penalising Crockett.
7) The Super Rugby competition needs to be assessed holistically. This sounds a little arty farty, but honestly, the competition is long and some teams play lots of easy teams at the start of the season or heaps of home games yet they are at the top of the table with a false sense of how good they are. For example, the Sharks and Highlanders play lots of games in their home country at the start of the season, although the Highlanders have played some tough teams when you look at it in the Chiefs, Crusaders, Waratahs, Stormers, and of course, the Reds! It is also intriguing how the Highlanders finally played a South African team in Round 7, yet the Hurricanes played their first South African team in Round 1. The Hurricanes are top of the table and the only unbeaten team, yet unlike the Highlanders, they haven't played the top teams like the Crusaders, Chiefs or Stormers yet.
8) Is it worse being a Blues season ticketholder or Rebels or Lions? The Blues haven't won a game yet, but the Rebels and Lions have only won on the road in 2015. This must be frustrating for their fans who show up to watch them play at home. On behalf of all New Zealanders I would like to congratulate the Lions for winning three games on tour. This was remarkable given the Lions slow start to the season. It will be interesting to see how they go once they return home. For the record though, there is still plenty of hard work ahead for the Lions as they played three of the lower ranked teams on their tour in the Blues, Reds and Rebels, but I know many people didn't pick them to win one game, let alone three.
9) What has happened to the Reds? They recruited heavily in the off season and on paper have enough stars to be a competitive team, but something just isn't going right for the Queensland team. It will be interesting to see if the Blues or Reds coach is dumped first this season. It does show what a tough competition Super Rugby is when you get players like Jerome Kaino, Keven Mealamu, Charles Piutau, James O'Connor, Quade Cooper and Adam Thomson in teams that just can't win.
10) Super Rugby Round 7 reminded me of how great this competition is. Even the bottom teams like the Blues and Reds have international stars, while different teams from different countries have their own styles and strengths. The South African teams love their rolling mauls, while the New Zealand teams love counter attacking. I just love the contrast and when you have lower ranked teams like the Force, pushing better ranked teams like the Sharks, despite their respective table positions, it makes it tough as a tipster, but so interesting as a fan!
What did you learn from Super Rugby Round 7?
http://www.superrugbytips.com/2015/03/super-15-rugby-round-7-review-10-things.html
Watch Super Rugby Round 7 video highlights here
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